Day 13 part 1

Our time on the Yangtze has come to an end and we are now on our way to yet another airport for our flight to Shanghai. Let's hope there are no delays with this flight. 

We had an early start this morning, with breakfast at 6:30 so that we were on our bus at 7:15 for our visit to the Three Gorges Dam.  We decided last night not to bother with breakfast but instead to have a cup of tea and eat the fruit in our cabin, especially as lunch was going to be at 10:45! I know, it's hard going but we have to remember what our guide in America told us last year. 'You are on tour not on holiday'. How true that saying is. 

Anyway, back to the Three Gorges Dam, which is the largest hydro electric dam in the world. Ships take 4 hours to pass through the 5 locks, dropping or rising 20m in each lock. It would have been nice if it hadn't been foggy so that we could see clearly but with only 70 clear days a year that would have been a big ask. It was very warm and the sun did try to break through the fog but it gave up. 

This is what we should have seen. 

This is what we saw. The downstream lock to Shanghai is on the left and the upstream lock is on the right. 

This us the viewing area for the dam and the tall building in the background emerging through the fog is a new ship lift which is under construction. It is due for completion in 2016 and should save 3 hours on the current passage through the locks. We were supposed to go through the locks last night but the government has banned passenger ships from going through for the time being because of the backlog of cargo boats due to recent heavy floods along the Yangtze. 

Here's himself doing what he does best, reading!! The book this time claims to be the largest book in the world. 

So goodbye Yangtze. Now we are on our bus heading to Yichang for our flight. Tonight we have our farewell dinner, thanks to my complaint to the powers that be, in lieu of the champagne on the Great Wall. Let's hope that we aren't too tired to enjoy it. 

Great, we made it to the airport and guess what, the flight is delayed due to our plane being diverted to another airport because of the fog!!!  Looks like our dinner in lieu of champagne is jinxed.